Indigo Again
by shane1594
Summary: Ash returns after a break to take the Pokemon world by storm.
1. Indigo Again

Ash sighed. He had been in Pallet Town for six months now and he was bored. Delia looked up and asked, "What seems to be the problem Ash?"

Ash replied, "I don't really know. I've been feeling kind of restless lately."

Delia smiled and said, "Finding enjoyment in doing next to nothing has never come easy to you, has it?"

"Is that what this is?"

"Probably, you're just like your father that way."

"'S'at so?"

"Yeah. Why don't you go travelling again?"

"I can't."

"Really? Why ever not?"

"I need to be ready to be called on here. There's no telling what might happen if I'm needed and am off overseas somewhere."

Delia huffed, "You _do _have a point there...So, why don't you compete in the Pokémon League here then?"

"Don't I need a new set of Badges to do that?"

"No. The Pokémon Monthly last month stated that any set of a Region's badges gained can be reused, As long as you have competed in an Official Tournament within the last five years. So yours still count."

"Really?" Ash asked.

"Why would I lie?"

"Okay, when is it?"

"I think that it starts in a few days, so if you fly over to the Indigo Plateau..."

"Yeah, sure thing," Ash said, getting up from his position, sitting at the table. He rushed out of the house and ran to Professor Oak's Lab.

When he knocked on the door Gary opened it. He said, "Hiya Ash, what's the rush?"

"Oh, it's you Gary!" Ash quietly exclaimed.

"Yeah, I just got home from teaching at the Pokémon Academy. How about you?"

"I've decided to re-enter the Indigo League."

"Oh?" Gary asked, surprised at Ash's intentions, never having known him to redo anything if he could help it. "I didn't think that you'd try for a second go around, after what Charizard did to you there."

"Yeah, well...that was then."

"Indeed. So, who're you taking with you?"

"I don't really know. I just came up with the idea," Ash said, not entirely lying. "That's why I'm here."

"I see," Gary said.

"All I know for sure right now, is that Pikachu and Lucario are definitely going to be coming with me."

"Pikachu I can understand, but why do you keep on taking that Lucario around with you?" Ash sighed and started to tell Gary that he couldn't tell him, but Gary cut him off before he could by saying, "You know what, it's not important," thinking of his taking Espeon and Electivire around while leaving Blastoise at the Oak Ranch. "Come with me," Gary said as he moved out of the doorway and headed to the pokèball Storage Room in his Grandfather's Ranch.

When Ash was in front of his pokèballs, he thought, _'Now, who should I take with me? I need to get there in the first place, so Pidgeot can do that,' _as he picked up one pokèball after another, until he had six in hand. He then went outside and whistled loudly, causing all of his Pokémon to rush at him. He returned the six he had chosen to their respective pokèballs before having Pikachu jump on his shoulder and, as he was about to jump on Pidgeot he realised that he'd be needing at the very least one change of clothes. He then jumped on Pidgeot's back and said, "Looks like we need to head on home first Pidgeot," causing Pidgeot to cry out before taking to the skies, his other Pokémon returning to their respective homes on the Ranch, most kind of disappointed that they weren't going with him, but none more so than Meganium.

Three hours later Ash was circling around Indigo Stadium, contemplating whether he should, or should not, enter. In the end he said to himself, "Ah, what am I doing? Screw it, I'll just do what I always do. Sign up for it and then deal with the repercussions later." Pidgeot descended at a rapid pace, pulling up just before they crash landed, setting down just in front of the Pokècentre. Ash walked in and saw that there was still a rather large line in order to register. He waited around for about an hour until it was finally his turn. He approached the desk and said, "Hey Nurse Joy, I'm sure you've heard this a gazillion times already, but I'm here to register for the Pokémon League Tournament."

"You're right, I have. I'll register you right away though," the Nurse Joy said.

"If you don't mind me asking, which one are you?"

"Me? I'm in charge of the Indigo Plateau Pokècentre."

"Really?" Ash asked, frowning, "The last time I was here, they just got some Nurse Joy from another Pokècentre to take care of things here for a few weeks."

"Yes. That used to be the case, but when the Battle Frontier moved their headquarters here, things started to get rather hectic and I was called in to take over full time."

"I see," Ash commented.

"I'll need your Pokèdex to register you."

"Sure, here you are," Ash said, handing her the Pokèdex that he had made sure to grab before leaving Pallet Town.

Nurse Joy pushed the Pokèdex into a slot in her desk, which registered Ash's trainer data on their system. She said, "There you go, now you're registered," handing Ash's Pokèdex back to him.

"Thanks," Ash said, "When is my first battle?"

"Oh! The competition is being run a little differently this year."

"Differently?"

"Yes. You see, since the Battle Frontier moved here, Mr. Goodshow invited Scott to participate in the running of this year's Pokèmon League Competition. Because of that, and the larger amount of participants, this time the first round consists of a Contest Performance Round. A round robin of strict Pokèmon battles starts after that. The trainers of that Round are the top eight of each of the fields. After that is a tag-team battle where each trainer can use a maximum of three Pokémon each. Then there are the finals. When they reach the Top 8 the remaining battles are all six-on-six full battles."

"Alright, thanks Nurse Joy," Ash said, "How do I determine which field I'm battling on?"

"They are randomly assigned the day before the Competition begins."

"Alright, thanks...About accommodation...?"

"All hotels in Indigo Plateau are free for competing trainers and their friends. If there are no longer any places available, there are rooms here in the Pokècentre for use."

"Alright, thanks," Ash said for the final time as he retrieved his Pokèdex and left the Pokècentre to look for a hotel.

XXXXX

Ash found a hotel that he could make use of for the rest of the Competition, with self-contained rooms, and spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking all of the junk that his mother had managed to stuff into his backpack before he had returned to pack himself. He took special note of the amount of underwear that she packed. When he was done he found that, to his shock, it was already six o'clock, so, not wanting to roam all over the city...because it really _was _a city...looking for a place to eat, he went downstairs to the hotel's restaurant to see what they had when he saw a plate full of steamed broccoli and cauliflower, on top of a massive mound of flat rice noodles. He thought, _'There's only one person that I know that has that...Leaf!' _and followed the waiter's path with his eyes to his inevitable destination. When he saw his old friend accept the meal he walked over and sat down after she had started to somehow start to shovel the meal down with chopsticks.

Not looking up from her meal Leaf said, "Ya know it's not very polite to sit at a lady's table uninvited?"

"That would be true," Ash said, "if there were any ladies here that is." Leaf's eyes flashed. "All I can see is a Red Leaf."

Leaf's eyes widened, still not having looked up stuffing her face, and asked, "Ash?" as he was the only one that had ever used that ridiculous name for her.

"The one and only."

Leaf finally looked up at the trainer that she hadn't seen hide nor hair of since they had both started their Pokèmon journey's eight years ago. She stood up and veritably launched herself over the round table, causing them, and the table to crash on the ground, tears coming to her eyes as she dug her face into his chest, not wanting him to see them. Ash wrapped his arms around her. They lay there like that until the waiter that had given her her meal came over and, with a rather stern look on his face, said, "You _are_ going to pay the damages, right?" referring to the table legs that had been broken.

Leaf said, "Ash can handle it."

She had said it in a cute tone that Ash had never been able to refuse, causing him to sigh and say, "How much," over Leaf's unmoving shoulder.

"It will need to be valued."

Ash sighed again and said, "Fine, I'm staying here for the duration of the tournament anyway. Just come and get me when it's done."

"Very well, _sir,_" the waiter said snootily, noting Ash's choice of clothing, black jeans, black shoes, a black, long sleeved, shirt and a royal blue coat with no sleeves, plus a blue fedora with a black band and a flared back, in comparison with Leaf's choice of a long blue dress with, for some reason, a straw summer hat with a blue ribbon running around it, tied off with a bow. She also had a black silk shawl that was currently resting on her chair, the only one at the table still where it was meant to be.

After a while Ash said, "Uhh...Leaf...?" tapping her on her shoulder.

"Yes, Ash?"

"Not that I don't like it, but can you get off of me?" Ash said, kind of uncomfortable, but not overly so, with her rather large tits pressing up against him.

"Get off...?" her eyes widening at their situation and launched herself _off_ him, almost as hard as she had launched herself _onto_ him. "So..."

"So."

"What do you want to do?"

"Hmm...the way I remember it, we left on some rather strange terms, didn't we?"

"Hmm..." Leaf said, thinking back to their last time together before leaving on their own Pokèmon journeys, hers going to Hoenn, Ash staying in Kanto. "Ahh!" she screamed, "You were saying that battling is more important that making your Pokémon look fancy, didn't you?"

"I believe that I may have said something to that effect."

"Well, I've since come to the conclusion that they are both as important as each other."

"Oh?"

"What about you?"

"The same. I take it that since you said something like that, you're competing?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"It looks like we'll finally get to have that battle that we wanted then."

"Wait...you're..."

"Yeah, sure am."

Leaf smiled and said, "Well then, it looks like we're going to be rivals then."

"Rivals? You and me? Never going to happen. We might fight a bit every now and then, but rivals?"

"I'm going to use everything I've learnt to defeat you, Ash Ketchum!" Leaf declared to the restaurant's customer's.

"Don't you forget, I'm just the same," Ash said. He smiled before saying, "I'm glad you're here Leaf."

"I'm glad you're here too, Ash."

"But unfortunately it looks like I'm going to need to find another Hotel to stay at."

"Huh?"

"If I stay here, I'll never get any sleep," Ash grinned. Leaf's face turned red and she slapped him. Hard. "Yeah, you haven't changed." Leaf growled and turned on her heel, harrumphing before stomping out of the restaurant, forgetting that she was ever hungry at all. Ash saw the waiter coming over and, before the waiter could say anything, he said, "I know, I'm paying for her food too." The waiter strutted away. Ash sighed and said, "I just know that this is going to be my most expensive Pokémon League Competition yet." Ash went to the front desk and paid for Leaf's meal. He also got a takeaway variant of the same, along with some Chicken Chop Suey for himself. He left the copy of Leaf's meal at the reception desk and paid them to take it to Leaf's room, wherever it was before heading up to his own room. He ate his meal, and logged on to the Pokèmon League's website to read up about he rules and regulations for the upcoming rounds, finding that for the Performance Round he could use as many Pokémon as he wanted, but no more than three. Once he had reread the rules and regulations he thought on strategies for the upcoming match. Once he had decided on one he went to bed.

XXXXXX

A/N

I have most of the second chapter written, however I am having problems coming up with character names. I would be much obliged if you would place some suggestions in a review

Sincerely,

shane1594


	2. Round 1

The next day Ash was called up to perform first on the Rock Field. After reaching the centre of the stage he was told to continue without delay. He said, "Let the act begin!" as he threw two pokèballs onto the field. From the balls two Pokémon appeared, surrounded by a rainbow, due to Ash's having added half a rainbow seal onto each of the ball capsules that he had used. One was a Milotic that Ash had caught fully evolved in the Unova Region, alongside a Slowking that he had come into possession of when he traded a Tentacruel that he had caught outside Palmpona Town

Up in the stands, Leaf thought, _'He's completely ignoring the field that he's on! Well, that's one way to do it, and so quintessentially Ash.'_

Ash however, merely kept on going. He ordered, "Milotic, use Brine on the ground, Slowking, use Psychic!" Milotic shot a powerful stream of water at the ground, forcing itself up in the air. As Milotic shot into the air Slowking collected the water from the Brine attack and formed it into a sphere. "Now Milotic, use Hydro Pump!" Milotic shot a powerful Hydro Pump at Slowking, who, without Ash's giving it a command, took control of it and spun it around its back before sending it back at Milotic. Milotic didn't move an inch, having complete faith in its partner from all of the double battle practice they had gotten in.

After Milotic had finished its attack, it had two streams rotating around it courtesy of Slowking, before a third joined it, thanks to its earlier Brine attack. What stunned most of the audience though, was that it wasn't moving an inch, almost seeming to defy the laws of physics. Leaf thought, _'Nice one Ash, you get Milotic into the sky by force, and then keep it from falling with Slowking's Psychic, fooling the audience into thinking its staying there by itself. But that's _not_ going to be enough to get through, after all, there's plenty of Coordinators lined up with a lot of experience in performances.'_

"Now, bring it together!" Ash ordered, causing Slowking to bring the streams together, surrounding Milotic. "Okay Slowking, transform...!" The judges looked at each other, wondering what the League Challenger could be thinking, after all, Slowking can't learn Transform. There confusion was erased however when Ash finished his sentence, "...it!" and the water that Milotic was trapped in changed shape to imitate Slowking. "Okay Slowking, make it into the judges!" The water changed shape again, this time to that of the judges sitting behind the panel before them, the change happening almost instantaneously. "Now, Milotic!"

To the judges, and the audience's surprise, Milotic did absolutely nothing. Slowking did. The water transformed into the shape of a massive Milotic. Ash left them like that for a while. Leaf thought, _'You're doing great Ash, far better than I thought you would. But you haven't really shown us anything about Milotic at all.'_

"Now, separate it!" Ash commanded. Slowking separated the massive Milotic's ears, eyebrows and tail fan separated from the main body, each separate form changing into orbs of varied sizes the instant that they had separated from the main body, which turned into a large sphere itself, around which the smaller orbs rotated. Milotic swam around the large sphere before jumping from it into one of the smaller ones, coming to a stop before jumping back again. After it had visited each of the smaller spheres it jumped from the central sphere, back into the smaller one that it had jumped to originally, before jumping to another of the smaller ones, in the same order that she had jumped to them beforehand. Then did it in reverse. "Okay, that's enough Milotic," Ash called out, prompting Milotic to emerge from the centre sphere, lightly alighting upon the rocky field.

In the stands Leaf thought, _'Okay, I can understand everything he's done so far...but what in the world can he be thinking of doing with all that wat...'_

Ash said, "Slowking, condense the water and use Water Pulse."

_'Now he uses its water capabilities?!'_

Slowking manoeuvred the massive sphere of water so that it was directly above it before raising its arms up and placing them just below the water, shrinking the mass down to a manageable size. Slowking then shot it up into the air, quickly rising through the atmosphere until it reached such a height that it froze before hurtling to the ground. The announcer said, "Well, that was an interesting performance given to us by As..."

"I'm not done yet, Milotic, use Iron Tail!"Ash said, Milotic's tail changing to resemble worked steel. Nothing happened. The audience started to grumble at Ash's apparently pointless decision to continue the round, but do nothing to entertain them. Then they heard before they saw the block of ice hurtling towards the field. Ash said, "Milotic, now!" causing Milotic to coil up before launching itself into the air, spinning as it did so, shattering the ball of ice with its hardened tail. Ash said, "Use Flash," to Slowking, who generated just enough light to cause the flakes of ice in the air to refract and produce a majestic sheen around the Pokèmon and their trainer.

Leaf shouted, "Holy Pokémon!" prompting the rest of the audience to shrug off their silence and cheer at the top of their voice at the performance given to them. Ash merely bowed.

After the crowds cheers died down, the announcer said, "Now, on to the judges."

Mr. Contesta said, "I must say that I'm most impressed. It is not often that you can get to see a Double Performance here in the Kanto Region, let alone one as polished as this. If you don't mind my asking young man, have you been practising that long?"

"Uhh...no," Ash said, "I actually only came up with it last night."

"Last night? But those two performed so brilliantly together I'd have thought that they had done it many times together."

"Well...I'm actually a trainer, and I have trained some of my Pokémon almost solely for Double Battles, and these two are the best I have."

"I see," Mr. Contesta said, "Well, I hope that I'll be seeing you at a Grand Festival or two in the future."

"Maybe, I'm not too sure though."

"Well, just give it some thought."

"I will."

The Nurse Joy sitting next to Mr. Contesta said, "That was on of the most amazing performances that I have ever seen. At one point I even forgot that I was watching a Performance Round."

The third judge, in his traditional aloha shirt, Scott said, "Heya Ash, long time no see."

"Scott," Ash nodded.

"Been brushing up on your theatrics a bit I see."

"..."

"Like Nurse Joy said, you captured the elements of both performance and battle and melded them perfectly together in a way that is unique and your own. Exactly what I've come to expect from you. I hope to see you in the finals," Scott said as Ash's score lit up behind each of the judges. He got three tens.

"There you have it folks," The announcer said, "Ash Ketchum has garnered a perfect score, setting the bar high for all those competing." The crowd cheered for all they were worth, causing Leaf to smile one last time before heading off to take part in her own performance.

Near where Leaf had been standing another girl with brown hair was thinking, '_Ash has really come __a long way since we last competed for the Terracotta Town Medal...I wonder if my Pokemon can handle this?_' biting her lip in nervousness.

Next to her her brother said, "Calm down May, it'll be fine. You did take first place in this years Hoenn Grand Festival after all."

"Yeah, but I didn't have to go up against Drew or Harley...so I was almost guaranteed to win."

"You might be right, but this is a performance round remember, you'll do great."

"Yeah, you're right Max, just treat it like any other competition I've ever been in."

"Now come on, I'm up soon on the Ice Field."

"Right," The brown haired girl said.

XXXXX

An hour later, on the Grass Field, Leaf stood before the judges, the Nurse Joy from Pewter City, the Mayor of Indigo City and the Frontier Brain, Tucker. She said, "Let's get the show on the road, go, Ninetales!" as she threw her pokèball onto the field where it erupted into an inferno around Ninetales, due to the seal attached to the ball capsule. She then commanded, "Ninetales, use Psyshock," causing her Ninetales to generate four balls of psychic energy and fling it into the air, catching them with its tails and starting to juggle them with it, with the help of the move Flail. "Energy Ball!" Ninetales created five balls of Grass-type energy and flung it behind it, getting caught by its tails and added on to the juggling act. It kept on juggling for a minute before Leaf said, "Alright Ninetales, now hit 'em high," causing Ninetales to hit the balls with more force, forcing them higher into the air, but it kept on catching and rotating them, never moving an inch from where it had been released.

In the stands Ash thought, _'Ninetales has been trained well to be able to do something like that. Looks like I'll really have to watch out for her. But then, I already knew that.'_

Back on the field Leaf said, "Now Ninetales, arrange 'em." Nine tails hit the balls so that they were arranged perfectly level with each other, in a circle in the air. The balls started to fall, due to gravity's influence, before Leaf said, "Fire Blast." Ninetales looked up at the falling balls and shot a stream of fire with five prongs extending out from the foremost tip of the stream, making it level with the balls before the prongs extended, piercing the five Energy Balls first, letting the Psyshock spheres fall closer to the ground before piercing them all at the same time. The spheres exploded into rainbow coloured light, joining the green and yellow lights from the destroyed Energy Balls. The lights gave Ninetales a multi-coloured coat.

Ash thought, _'Short, simple, and very beautiful...just like Leaf.'_

The announcer said, "Now, to the judges."

The Mayor said, "The performance drew my attention from the word go, showing Ninetales' power at the start, then its beauty at the end."

Nurse Joy said, "Not one of the more complicated performance's I've seen, but still one of the best."

Tucker said, "A performance worthy of a Coordinator that has participated in many Grand Festivals. It was short, but drew the audience's attention at every step. Quite a show."

XXXXX

At the end of the day the top 32 had been decided and the results were listed next to their pictures, ordered by which field they had performed on and where they ranked on each field. The list was displayed upon a massive screen in the Pokècentre so that all trainers could check who their potential opponents would be as the actual opponents would be declared the next day.

Grass: Ash Ketchum, Jessie Miyamoto, Elle Suart, Tamsyn Burke, Max Maple, Jasmine Durant, Janet Goddard, Gary Ayers.

Water: May Maple, Jill Turner, Nessa Tanner, Salvadore Harrison, Jaden Irvin, Teri Baxter, Jonathan Packer.

Ice: Keira Stone, Bill Turner, Xavier McCormick, Tristram Trueman, Evelyn Cross, Daniella Tinker, Rosalyn Fisher, Louise Owens, Jimmy Chadwick.

Rock: Leaf Green, Yolanda Harrison, James Jamison, Devon Ware, Liza Steele, Kenneth Dougherty, Roxie Haywood, Daniel Jackson.


	3. Type Doesn't Matter

The next day Ash went to the Pokècentre in order to register his team for the second round. When he got there he saw the list of opponents that had been posted. It separated them by field and then listed the matches below it, in a field coloured such that it reflected the nature of the field that they were to be battling on(1). He was battling Elle. A coordinator that managed to get a similar score to his own, using a Raichu and a Pikachu in a double performance. Ash thought, _'I bet this was Scott's idea.' _He went to Nurse Joy and said, "I'd like to register my Pokémon."

"Of course," Nurse Joy said, "Which ones will you be using?"

"I'll be using Infernape, Gallade and Toxicroak."

"Very well then, your battle is the first on the Grass Field."

"Yeah, I already know that."

"Well did you know that it starts in ten minutes?"

"Ten minutes?!"

"Yes. You'd better get going."

"Yikes!" Ash yelped and dashed for the field that he was set to battle on any minute now.

As Ash left, Leaf appeared before Nurse Joy, saying, "I'll register...," prompting the nurse to touch a few buttons on her computer, registering her Pokémon for the second match on the Rock Field.

Ash burst onto the Grass Field just as the referee was about to declare him disqualified. He scratched the back of his head as he said, "Uhh...sorry I'm late, I kind of overslept... haha... haha... ha..." to a chorus of many 'boos' and calls for him to go back to bed, and even a few wishing for him to crawl into a ditch and die.

"Whatever, since you were late you can call out your Pokémon first," the spiteful referee said.

"Sure," Ash said as he rose into the air, courtesy of the green trainer platform that Scott had had installed. "Come on out, Gallade."

Elle called out, "Let's do it," as she threw a pokèball out, over the field, "Tyranitar!"

Once both Pokémon were on the field the referee said, "Begin!"

Ash said, "Ladies before gentlemen," allowing Elle to have the first move, satiating some, but not all, of his anti-fans.

From an announcer's box that had been attached to the arena wall the previous night, Scott's voice boomed out over the stadium, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Scott here and with me is Professor Gary Oak and we'll be doing the play by play for you today. It would seem that Ash Ketchum, a trainer hailing from Kanto's Pallet Town, has allowed Elle to go first. Is it just a way to win the crowd's favour do you think, Gary?"

Gary said, "I've known Ash a long time and I've never once seen him care about the crowd's feelings towards him, believe me, when he battled me in Johto's Silver Conference the crowd was well and truly in my favour until about three quarters of the way through the battle. After that it seemed like they didn't really care who won."

"I see, well, that's about enough out of us for now."

Back on the field Elle said, "Your first mistake. Tyranitar, use Dark Pulse," as the field was covered by a mass of whirling sand due to Tyranitar's ability, Sandstream.

Ash, on the other side of the field, called out, "Rain Dance," over the massive howling of the sandstorm, enhancing his voice with the power of Aura in order to be heard by Gallade

Gallade thought to Ash, _'Yes, master.'_

Ash thought, _'I keep on telling you not to call me that,' _which he knew that Gallade would pick up as their minds were still connected, due to Gallade's connection needing about ten seconds for it to close.

The sandstorm came to an end, suppressed by the rain, causing Elle to gasp in shock that her opponent had a way to effectively crush her Tyranitar's ability. She announced, "It doesn't matter Tyranitar, it's still a psychic type, so use Dark Pulse!" Tyranitar let out a cry before an orb of dark energy formed in front of its mouth, before a black and purple stream shot from it.

Ash smirked, knowing that his next move would confuse his opponent, and said, "Gallade, let it hit you." Gallade nodded even as the attack rushed towards it.

Elle exclaimed, "What?!" as she thought, _'Why is he doing that? I mean, Dark Pulse should be really effective, so why...?' _The dark energy crashed into Gallade, who took a step back from the blow, but otherwise seemed to be unaffected. Elle demanded, "What's going on? Gallade should be toast."

"You were right in saying that Gallade is a Psychic Type. But you apparently forgot that it also has the properties of a Fighting Type, negating the effectiveness that Dark Types would normally have over it."

"It's a..." Elle couldn't finish her sentence in shock that she had so underestimated Gallade's potential, not to mention Ash's.

"Gallade, use Fury Cutter," Ash commanded, knowing that it would be effective against Tyranitar. Gallade extended its right arm to the side, a blade of red energy appearing about five centimetres away from both of its arms. It then charged at a phenomenal speed towards Tyranitar. When it reached it it started laying into it ferociously, one powerful hit after the other, until Tyranitar could no longer stand, let alone battle any further, Elle unable to do a thing due to the shock that she was still feeling from Gallade's surviving Dark Pulse, a move that she had taught to all of her Tyranitar in order to counter Psychic Type Pokémon. After the referee announced Tyranitar's defeat, Elle called it back to its Pokèball and called out, "You're up next, Tyranitar!"

Ash thought, _'How many of those things does she have?' _as the field was covered by sand after the referee had commenced the battle. Then, to his surprise, alongside the rest of the crowd, he heard a haunting melody play out over the battlefield. _'What in the world is that?' _Ash thought before he heard Gallade's cry of pain from inside the whirling mass of sand. He called out, "Gallade!" once again enhancing his voice to be heard over the massive sound generated by the sandstorm.

_'Yes Master?' _Gallade thought to Ash

_'What do I...oh nevermind that now... I want you to tell me exactly what is going on in there, as it happens, alright?'_

_'Of course...but why? I could just get rid of this sandstorm the same way I did the last one.'_

_'I want to freak Elle out a bit.'_

_'Oh,' _Gallade thought to Ash, having experience with his Master's proclivities in the past. '_Very well._'

While Ash listened to the music that was being played, figuring that it had something to do with giving commands to Elle's second Tyranitar, while receiving by the minute updates from Gallade as to what was happening inside the sandstorm. Eventually he got the pattern down. "Alright Gallade," Ash called out over the sandstorm. "I've got it."

Elle thought, _'He's _got _it? He couldn't possibly have figured out my musical commands...could he? _before going on to play a high note, causing her Tyranitar to fire a Fire Blast at the Gallade that she could not see.

Ash called out, "Gallade, move to the left one step and duck." Gallade did so, letting the leg of the fire blast pass by its head. "Now, use Feint following the strehtam."

Elle thought, _'Feint? He can't possibly think that that would do anything against my Rock Type Tyranitar, could he?' _But that wasn't what Ash had used Feint for. Elle had a tremor of fear rush through her as she heard Ash call to his Gallade to use Leaf Blade, back to back. _'He _wasn't _going to use it as an attack!?' _Ella played a short, low note, telling Tyranitar to use Ice Punch. It connected; Tyranitar laying into Gallade with an uppercut.

Gallade thought, _'I'm hit, Master!'_

_Ash thought, 'It's fine. That's just one more note to take into account. What was it?'_

_'I think it was an Ice Punch.'_

_'Ice Punch huh? She must have taught it that in order to counter Grass Types.'_

_'That's very interesting Master, but what should I do?'_

_'Simple, use Feint again, but this time charge a Leaf Blade at the same time.'_

_'Right,' _Gallade thought to Ash. As he did though, he was hit in the back by a Stone Edge attack. As soon as the first rock hit it didn't bother reporting it to Ash, knowing that he would have already realised it, but had been distracted by their talk. Instead it raised up a barrier of psychic energy as it had been taught, the same way that Ash's Lucario erected its Aura barriers.

It waited until it detected a slight slowing of the rocks before dropping the barrier and executing Ash's previous commands. Gallade slammed one of the glowing green blades into Tyranitar's arm before spinning on its foot and hitting it again, continuing its attack as it repeatedly spun on the spot, changing its target between Tyranitar's arms and legs, hitting the same spot on each appendage every time. The damage continued to add up and, before long, it sunk to its knees, letting Gallade jump up and hit it in its jaw, sending it flying backwards, crashing to the ground, telling the crowd that the second Tyranitar was now finished. Further evidence of this lay in the fact that the sandstorm died down, showing that Tyranitar was unconscious and Gallade barely showing any signs of injury, in a ready stance.

The referee said, "Tyranitar is unable to battle." A picture of Tyranitar that was on a screen, below the first one, showing the trainers' Pokémon, had a red line appear through it, signifying its elimination from the battle. Elle called out a third Tyranitar, its image joining its brethren on the screen. The referee said, "Let the third battle commence," causing a third sandstorm to whip up, thanks to Tyranitar's ability.

"Gallade, Psychic!" Ash ordered, well and truly fed up with battling Tyranitar, something that he'd never thought possible before now. Gallade extended its right hand, its eyes glowing blue.

Elle, on her side of the battlefield, laughed loudly before calling, "Tyranitar is a Dark Type! Psychic moves don't affect it." But she soon realised that Gallade wasn't trying to use it against her Tyranitar as the sand that was flying around wildly, suddenly compressed into a ball at the end of Gallade's extended hand. Elle's eyes widened as she said, "What in the..."

"...world has he done this time?" Scott asked in the announcer's booth.

"I don't know _how _he managed it," Gary said, "but it should be pretty obvious _what _he did. He's somehow come up with a third way to get around weather effects. I'll need to ask Ash how he managed it after the match."

"That's if the field-side reporters don't beat us to him."

Back on the field Gallade rushed at Tyranitar, using Feint, all the while still retaining the swirling ball of sand in front of its right hand. He jumped up, level with Tyranitar's head and held itself up there with Psychic, letting a hole appear in the balls covering layer. The sand rushed into Tyranitar's face, causing it to accumulate the damage that it would normally be immune from, thanks to Gallade's mixing its own psychic powers with the sand while it was still in the ball. Once the sand ball was emptied. Gallade repaired the hole that it had created and refilled the ball with psychic energy, smashing it into the top of the panting Tyranitar's head when Ash called out, "Use Psychic Sphere!" Tyranitar fell to the floor, unable to get up from the rapid onslaught.

The referee said, "This battle is now over," as he thought, _'Though it was really over once her first Tyranitar had been defeated,'_ then he took a look at Gallade and thought,_ 'It's not even scratched!'_ "With the defeat of Elle's final Tyranitar, Ash is the victor."

Ash returned Gallade to its pokèball, saying, "You did well," after it was inside. He then crossed to the middle of the field, meeting Elle already there, due to her rush in getting to her Tyranitar to see if it was alright, never having experienced such attacks before...not that any of the finalists had. Ash said, "Thank you for that."

"Don't patronise me! What do you have to thank me for? You completely decimated me."

Ash said, "It's my first official battle in more than two years now," even as he thought, _'Granted, I have been training with Cynthia for a while...but she doesn't need to know that.'_

"Oh..." Elle said, "WAIT! You haven't competed in two years and you still beat me _that _easily!?"

"Well, by the same token I _have _been training my Pokémon for those two years, so..."

"I guess that now I really do need to look into the potential of fighting types a bit."

"I guess so...but do tell me, how did you manage to get your hands on three Tyranitar?"

"Oh, that's easy. My parents have some of their own, and gave me an egg a year before I set out on my journey. After that I caught a Pupitar in the wild and then...well...Pidgeots and Beedrills."

"I see...so...what other Pokémon do you have?"

"I have a few water types and bug types, along with a few normal types."

"I see, so you went for pure power for the first round?"

"Yeah. What a mistake that was, huh?"

"Don't be like that, if it was anyone else you probably would have won. Hell, two years ago you probably would have beaten me...easily."

"Really?" Elle exclaimed.

"Yeah."

"Well then, if you let me, I'll train my Pokémon, get some new ones, and then challenge you again."

"I'll look forward to it," Ash said, thinking, _'Next time I'll need to bring some power Pokémon myself. If there are any more trainers like Elle here, then I'm going to need to rethink my strategy a bit...well...not that I really had one to begin with.' _Ash walked off the field the same way that he had entered.

In the stands Max was shivering at the level of power and control that Ash's Gallade had displayed, knowing that his own didn't even come close. May looked at her brother and placed her hand on her brothers shoulder, asking, "Are you alright Max?"

"AM I ALRIGHT?! Did you even see that match!? That Gallade is a monster!"

Leaf hit Max on the top of his head, from her seat behind him. She said, "Take that back!"

"Why'd you hit me?"

"To save you from your sister hitting you even harder," Leaf stated happily.

"Uhh..." Max said, looking at his sisters eyes pouring fire out of them and wincing. He looked back at Leaf and said, "Thank you..." bowing his head, unable to do a full bow without making a scene.

"That's alright."

"...uhh...who are you again?"

"The girlfriend of the owner of the 'monster' that you were just talking about."

"You're..."

"Ash's..."

"Yep!" Leaf smiled.

"When did _this _happen?"

"Oh...sometime when we were about nine, although it became official a few nights ago."

"Wait...then you're from..."

"Yep. A Pallet Town native."

"Wow...then it's no wonder then..."

"No wonder...?"

"Yeah, this girl Misty...I think she's the Cerulean City Gym Leader had the hots for Ash about five years or so ago and he didn't do a thing. We just thought that he was oblivious."

"Like his Slowking," Max added.

"Excuse me?" Leaf frowned, confused as to Max's meaning.

"The reason that Ash used Slowking alongside a Milotic with Cute Charm as its Ability in a performance round can only be that it is immune to it. If that wasn't the case then the possibility that it could be struck with love couldn't be ruled out. Which would make Milotic exempt from participating in double matches, in case an attack missed or was redirected."

"I...see..." Leaf said, never having bothered analysing such things as allies' Abilities affecting their teammates when participating in any of her battles. She was equally surprised that Ash might have done so. "Well, I don't really worry about such things, see you later," Leaf said, leaving to get to her battle on the Rock Field.

XXXXXXX

A/N

While most of this chapter is the same I just made a few quick fixes

(1) Grass = Green, Rock = Brown, Ice = Pale Blue, Water = Blue


End file.
